Observations on politics, news, culture and humor

The Blue Wall of Silence

The Blue Wall of Silence is the fancy name for the code of silence cops employ in protecting their own. It takes all sorts of forms. There’s cops lying under oath and hiding behind the sanctified images of their badges. There’s cops destroying evidence. There’s cops planting illegal items on people to justify absurd behavior. They think they owe it to each other because we are oh-so-tough on them.

The biggest problem with the code of silence might just be the moral graying it introduces into police morality. As Radley Balko puts it in an article I’m about to link to, “When we hear stories about police misconduct, the standard response from police groups and their supporters is that such behavior is rare, the fault of ‘a few bad apples.’ While that may be true, the ‘good’ officers tend to cover up for them.”

Don’t think this is about Hollywood. It’s happening across this country, every day. Balko runs down some of the most egregious cases in a great column this week. The thing that’s incredible about Balko’s column is that he doesn’t just pick code of silence cases–there’s too many of those. He picks cases in which the only officers punished were the officers who did the right thing.

Like the infamous DEA case in Kansas City, Kan. DEA thug Timothy McCue beats the piss out of a guy for no reason, cooks up some false charges…only to have good cop Max Seifert tell the truth and see the charges fall apart. Of course, this led to the good cop being forced into retirement with a reduced pension, whilst the DEA goon and nearly all of the cops who helped him cover up the brutality are still in law enforcement. As a little extra eff-you to all of the anti-brutality people out there, one of the conspirators, Steven Culp, is even executive director of the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training.

New York City comes out looking especially bad. Adrian Schoolcraft, a young cop who tried to be a modern-day Serpico and bust the department for misconduct, was not only brushed off by all manner of “leaders” within the department, but eventually was unfairly sent to the psych ward. In another case, a bunch of rookie cops beat cabbie LeVelle Ming for no reason. Good cop Anthony Acosta broke up the fight…yet it was Acosta who was sentenced to desk duty whilst the leader of the rookies was actually promoted.

It’s this Ming-Acosta case that William Grigg zeroes in on at LewRockwell.com. According to Grigg:

After Ming finally managed to exit the vehicle, the beating began in earnest. More than a dozen of [one of the cops’] comrades swarmed Ming, punching and kicking the outnumbered and helpless cabbie while witnesses looked on in horror.

As the assault grew uglier, a Park Avenue doorman frantically dialed 911. “You got to get the cops over,” he pleaded. “They’re beating the sh*t out of a cab driver. About 15 guys. They’re f*****g jumping him…. They’re getting a two-by-four. I’m witnessing a big two-by-four being picked up.”

Who will guard the guards themselves? Anthony Acosta tried to stop this raging mob of our “guardians” from beating an innocent man. Grigg continues with Acosta’s story:

After uniformed officers arrived on the scene, Acosta identified himself as both a policeman and an eyewitness. He was immediately assaulted and handcuffed, and then put in a police vehicle. He was taken to a nearby station house and detained for most of the night in the roll call room. He was eventually approached by Inspector Michael Harrington, who insisted that Acosta follow a carefully written script: He was to sign a statement claiming that he had broken up the fight but had not identified himself as a police officer when he was arrested.

“Listen, this is an unfortunate incident,” the Inspector told Acosta. “This is what you’re going to say.”

After Acosta refused to perjure himself, he was forced to turn in his badge and gun, and placed on a “modified assignment” for the “good order of the department.” He was eventually hit with five spurious administrative charges: “Conduct unbecoming,” failing to identify himself, interfering with an off-duty police officer, improperly filling out line-of-duty injury paperwork, and improperly preparing witness statements. Predictably, his police union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, did nothing to help him.

Meanwhile, none of the assailants was punished at all.

I’ve said it many times before: it’s their country, we just live in it. They don’t even make a pretense about this crap. Open your eyes. The cops are not your friends. The majority of them are power-tripping thugs who love to aggress against people. They love the thrill of it–the perverse thrill of being the only guy with a gun in the fight, the only guy with legitimacy behind any and all of his violence. Forgetting this might cost you your life.